Tonight, I’ve been playing with Stellarium, a very cool planetarium program. It’s an open source program so it’s free and has a lot of features. I really like the view where you can have different culture’s constellations and asterisms portrayed on the stars. It has a night mode if you want to take your laptop [...]
Browsing Posts in Ministry of Astronomy
Stellarium — An Open Source Computer Planetarium
July 18, 2008
No comments
A Desperate Plea, Please Name Something After Me
July 17, 2008
3 comments
My biggest goal in my life right now is to have a species named after me. Stephen Colbert just demanded and got a spider named after him and I think it is my turn. I’m not against other things being named after me. The most “honorable” way would be to discover a comet. The first [...]
Tunguska Explosion Anniversary
June 30, 2008
No comments
Today is the 100th anniversary of the Tunguska explosion. For those of you who weren’t in remotest Siberia 100 years ago, this was the most recent large meteor impact on earth (link) (illustration). It is very interesting that no meteorite fragments were found but searches for fragments continue. A column of bluish light as bright [...]
Beyond UFOs
June 1, 2008
1 comment
I just finished reading an excellent book by Jeffrey Bennett called Beyond UFOs: The Search for Extraterrestrial Life and Its Astonishing Implications for Our Future. This book details on a layman’s level, the state of the science and technology being used to search for life beyond earth. Bennett does an excellent job explaining the process [...]
Phoenix Descending — The Thrill of Discovery
May 30, 2008
No comments
The space program is one of the few things in my life that thrills me. I get an indescribable rush of emotion when I watch a Shuttle launch or one of our robots sends back an amazing image. It makes me proud to be an American; and, even more so, proud to be an inquisitive [...]
Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Snaps Picture of Phoenix Lander Under Parachute
May 26, 2008
No comments
The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter which was acting as a radio relay for yesterday’s landing of the Mars Phoenix Lander snapped this amazing picture of the Lander under a fully-unfurled parachute. From a JPL press release: Camera pointing for the image from HiRISE used navigational information about Phoenix updated on landing day. The camera team and [...]
Welcome to Mars
May 26, 2008
No comments
After a flawless landing, Mars Phoenix Lander has begun to send back images from the martian arctic. The first images were engineering images to look at parts of the lander such as the landing legs, the unfurled solar arrays, and to test the cameras and computers. So far everything looks great and after several days [...]
Back in September, I wrote about the unusual meteor impact in Peru. My comments got picked up by a New York Times science blog and, more recently, I was interviewed by a reporter from the Brown Daily Herald. His story ran today and here are some excerpts: The handful of shepherds who happened to lead [...]
Space Shuttle Lands on Fire, and That’s OK
March 26, 2008
4 comments
I just watched the Space Shuttle Endeavour night landing and was surprised to see what appeared to be an orange strobe light flashing at the base of the tail. I didn’t think the Shuttle had any sort of aircraft-style anti-collision light. The light looked weird for a aircraft light. It was orange and not on [...]
Early Easter This Year
March 23, 2008
No comments
Those of you who got to celebrate a “white Easter” this year surely noticed that Easter was early this year. Even here in Syzdekistan, the traditional Easter dinner held outside was unusually pleasant and not on the warm side as it often is. Yes, Easter falling on March 23 is very unusual and this the [...]
Comments